Press Releases

Community organisations, iwi and landholders will be able to apply for grants from an $8 million conservation fund to help save our native plants, birds and insects and habitats, Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage announced today.

Biodiversity protection will be the focus of the 2019 funding round for the Department of Conservation’s Community Fund.

The Green Party has negotiated to achieve substantial improvements to Medicinal Cannabis legislation which provide certainty and clarity to patients and their whānau.

“Today, the Government's Bill will return to the House for its Second Reading. Through negotiation with governing parties we've managed to guarantee certainty for patients and their whānau that a local licencing, production, prescription and consumption regime will be established by the end of next year”, Green Party Sensible Drug Law Reform spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick said today.

The Green Party is calling on the Justice Minister to ensure improved prisoner rehabilitation and integration by allowing people in prison to cast their vote during elections.

“Today is 125 years since New Zealand women first went to the polls, yet to this day there are New Zealanders still denied from casting their vote”, Green spokesperson on Justice Golriz Ghahraman said today.

“This is because in 2010 the National Party banned all people in prison from casting their vote.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage and Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash today announced an important step forward on work to restore the health of the Hauraki Gulf.

“We have announced today that a Ministerial Advisory Committee will be established to play a key role in implementing the Sea Change Plan, which includes proposals for improving the health of the Hauraki Gulf,” said Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.

New Zealand and Chile will help protect vulnerable seabirds, including the critically endangered Antipodean albatross.

A cooperative arrangement was signed today by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, on behalf of Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage and Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash, and the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Ampuero, who is visiting New Zealand alongside President Sebastián Piñera.